Comments on: Digital Comics: Catching Up To Print Pretty Quickly

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:10:42 +0000

I’ve bought digital at full price (Fatale #1, new issues of Walking Dead). I’ve bought some at $1 off (I, Zombie). And I’ve bought tons during the $0.99 sales, and grabbed many free first issues.

It all depends on the title.

I think it’s ridiculous how long the lag is before the drop to $1.99 for some titles. Months and months.

By: CagedLeo730

CagedLeo730 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:46:32 +0000

I have yet to buy a digital comic at full price. The majority of my digital comics were bought during a 99 cent sale (Y: The Last Man). With the new 52, I’ve bought more single issues than ever before for less than digital (even after the dollar drop). Right now it’s not economical for me to buy day-and-date digital and I still prefer print.

By: atragon

atragon — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:52:03 +0000

i’m sorry, until actual itemized numbers are released, nobody knows anything.

By: Rich Johnston

Rich Johnston — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:03:48 +0000

I bet the ComiXology counts free comics. And I bet Diamond doesn’t count Free Comic Book Day…

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:31:39 +0000

I haven’t purchased a print comic since October and won’t ever go back if digital is an option. I won’t even wait for the trades now, since I can click on my tablet and buy every comic that I want from my living room and read them that day. No mail order. No driving 100 miles to the closest LCS. No finding ways to store more bits of shiny colored paper. All I need is storage space on my sd card and hard drive.

By: Chris B

Chris B — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:13:01 +0000

That’s funny, cause most of the comics I download are $1, as opposed to the standard print $3. My wife told me to stop buying $3 printed comics when I can download them for $2 (or less), so I stopped as of last month. I have to wait for a month on my DC stuff, but since I used to go through a mail order service I would have to wait that long anyway.

By: Brock Beauchamp

Brock Beauchamp — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:44:33 +0000

Until publishers start charging reasonable prices for digital content, there won’t be parity. Why on earth would I spend $3.00 for a digital comic book when the print version is just $1.00 more? It’s a terrible deal when compared both to print and other forms of media. Offer me a $15-17 subscription for a year and I’d jump all over it, though. After all, they offer print subscriptions for $25.

By: Matt Rower

Matt Rower — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:25:53 +0000

And, how many of those five million in December were people taking their shiny new toys for test drives, maybe to never download another issue free or paid?

By: Another Steve

Another Steve — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:35:26 +0000

I, too, would be interested in knowing the breakdown of the sales. How many of those were free issues? How many of those were cheaper “back catalog” issues? How many were day-and-date issues?

Until day-and-date digital catches up, I’d not call this “parity”.

By: Barry Convex

Barry Convex — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:28:22 +0000

I suspect that a high percentage of those comics were either free or sold in $0.99 sales, so I’m sure that the digital market is a long way from equalling the direct market in terms of generating revenue. Still, that does show that there is significant growth potential in digital comics, regardless of what some skeptics (mostly retailers) would have you believe.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:04:06 +0000

Note: “a significant percentage of the 5 million comics downloaded were free”

I don’t know how much of a percentage is “significant” in this case. Still, if even half of those sales were paid, I’d say that’s pretty impressive, given where the digital market was a year ago.